Spencer Tyrone Webb, 28, was convicted Tuesday on 14 of the 22 charges he faced

June 23, 2010|By Peter Dujardin, pdujardin@dailypress | 247-4749

NORFOLK — A Newport News man faces at least 80 years in prison after a jury convicted him Tuesday on robbery, gun and drug-dealing charges.

Spencer Tyrone Webb, 28, was convicted in federal court of 14 of the 22 charges against him — following a five-day jury trial and eight hours of jury deliberations. The 14 convictions include two robberies, seven gun charges and five drug-dealing counts.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Webb faces a minimum of 80 years in prison under federal sentencing law regarding guns.

That is, the first offense for using a gun in a drug trafficking crime carries a mandatory five-year sentence. Three subsequent firearm convictions — using a gun in either a crime of violence or a drug trafficking crime — each carry mandatory 25-year sentences, to run consecutively with the first.

The case was opened after a July 2009 incident in which Webb fled Newport News police during a traffic stop, hiding his gun in the siding of a nearby home, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said the two robbery convictions stem from separate armed robberies of two drug dealers in 2006 — one a marijuana dealer and one an ecstasy dealer. Witnesses testified Webb was a member of the Bloods street gang, carried a gun and dealt drugs.

Webb was found guilty of both charges of "affecting interstate commerce by robbery." He was convicted on seven of 12 gun charges he faced.

He was also found guilty of five drug-dealing charges — pertaining to either powdered cocaine, marijuana or ecstasy — and one charge of marijuana possession. But he was found not guilty of two counts of dealing crack.

He will be sentenced Nov. 3 by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Putney and Eric Hurt.